If Eyes Could Speak
by KiwiDaydreamer
Summary: Travis Stoll was smooth with all the ladies, until Katie Gardner came along.


**If Eyes Could Speak**

**Summary: **What if Travis was smooth with all the ladies, until Katie Gardner came along?

Travis Stoll was not known for being an awkward boy. In fact, he had a reputation for being quite the ladies' man around Camp Half Blood, wooing all the girls with his dashing good looks, witty remarks and of course, his trademark sex god hair. Even at the tender age of sixteen, the son of Hermes had already had his fair share of girlfriends.

And then Katie Gardner came along.

Travis had known the beautiful daughter of Demeter for most of his life, although they hadn't really communicated until quite recently. Katie had come into camp as a summer camper two years after Travis and Connor had been there, meaning that they had known each other for a good ten years.

When the second Titan war had hit, all the campers that were still alive had managed to form some kind of a special bond. No-one could quite explain it, but they thought that it was all due to the fact they had all gone through a horrific, not to mention frighteningly traumatic experience together. Although Camp Half Blood was not a big site, with only around three hundred campers, many of the campers stayed within the safe realms of their cabin members and there were many people that were not well acquainted. That all changed after the Titan war, strong relationships building and growing, Travis and Katie's included.

No-one had ever thought that the pair would have ever gotten together, if anyone was being perfectly honest. They were polar opposites, Katie a kind, sweet and compassionate daughter of Demeter and Travis a mischievous, egotistical, thieving son of Hermes. The only time the pair had ever communicated in the past was when Katie was yelling at the elder Stoll for pranking their cabin. To this day, nobody really knows how the pair got together and if they were being truthful, Katie and Travis had no idea either. It just…happened.

If someone had told Travis that he was going to be reduced to a stuttering, awkward, frankly quite smitten teenage boy due to the likes of some rather plain daughter of Demeter, he would have simply scoffed at them and (not so) politely told them to go to a mental asylum. He had dated beautiful girls from the Aphrodite cabin, wooing them all, but when it came to Katie, it was an entirely different ball game.

"Are you okay bro?" Hearing his younger brother's voice had snapped Travis out his reverie.

"Huh? Yeah," he murmured rather unconvincingly, absently fiddling with the tie around his neck. It was the night of the annual dance that the camp counselors organized to celebrate the beginning of summer.

It was situated in the amphitheater this year and even the Stolls had to admit, the Aphrodite cabin had done extremely well decorating the place. They had gone by about two hours ago to see that the amphitheater had been totally transformed. Fairy lights and colored lanterns dotted the area, along with tables draped in white sheets with flickering candles and flower arrangements. They had even managed to get rid of the awful smell that came from blood and sweat, replacing it with the smell of cinnamon.

"You seem a bit nervous," Connor commented as he glanced at his brother. They had been getting ready for the past twenty minutes, but Travis seemed to be in a different place entirely. They were both wearing traditional black tuxes with crisp white button-up shirts underneath them. Travis was wearing a silk green tie and Connor was wearing a black bow-tie, both had their partners pick the ties out for them.

It had taken Travis far too long to ask Katie to the dance, considering they had been going out for the past three months. It was a sweet and simple romance and Travis was thankful. He had spent so much time having to think of grand dates with other girls, but Katie wasn't the same. There was nothing she loved more than sitting under a tree, with the elder Stoll's arm wrapped around her as they ate strawberries. It was simple, and Travis loved it.

Asking her to the dance was something Travis had tried to avoid for as long as possible. All the counselors had known the date of the dance for the past two months and all of them had managed to get dates already, even Connor. As everyone had suspected, a stuttering Percy had asked Annabeth to go with him, Chris and Clarisse were going together and everyone seemed so excited about it.

Everyone except Travis.

"How am I supposed to ask her?" Travis groaned as he melodramatically fell back onto his bunk. He had been trying to think of some spectacular way to ask his girlfriend to the annual dance, but all his ideas had fallen short in one way or another. His half-brother Chris glanced at him, trying to suppress laughter.

"How about 'Katie, will you go to the dance with me?'' Chris suggested, his tone hinting slight sarcasm. Travis sat up and glared at his half-brother before groaning.

"No, no, that won't do," Travis moaned as he ran a hand through his dark curls, tousling them further. His Hispanic brother raised an eyebrow, wondering where this conversation was heading. Everyone knew that Travis was one who enjoyed doing things to the most…extreme measures, but Chris knew better than most people that his plans almost always fell short and landed his half-brother in Chiron's office.

"You know Travis, she's already your girlfriend anyway. Just get her flowers or something, and ask her," Chris advised with a small shrug. He was going out with Clarisse La Rue, for crying out loud, so romance was definitely not his forte. "Don't do anything stupid," he added, just for good measure. The elder Stoll said nothing for a moment, but suddenly sat up, a large grin lighting up his face.

"I've got it, thanks Chris," he murmured in an excited tone as he jumped out of his bunk and rushed out of the door. Chris sighed, chuckling to himself softly. For Katie's sake, not to mention the rest of the camp, he hoped Travis' insane plan was going to work, whatever it was going to be.

As it turns out, it wasn't such a crazy plan after all. Travis had talked to one of Katie's half-siblings and managed to convince them to give him a dozen blood-red roses. Once they had found out it was for their sister, they were more than happy to comply. He had even gone as far as to make the suicide trip to the Aphrodite cabin, to make sure what he was about to do was, er… 'romantic enough.'

Travis had cringed at the thought as he awkwardly knocked on the front door of the Aphrodite cabin. He looked around, hoping that nobody was seeing what he was doing. He was Travis freaking Stoll after all, the guy had a reputation to maintain. He had a very brief chat to Drew, the counselor of the cabin. Drew was slightly surprised that Travis had even bothered to visit their cabin, as the plan he had created wasn't as far-fetched as any other plan he'd had. It was the way that most of the other boys around the camp had asked girls to the dance, but Drew was a sucker for a good love story and by the way she 'awwww-ed' at his plan, Travis knew that it was fool-proof.

Now, he just needed to find Katie.

In half an hour, Travis found himself standing at the front door of the Demeter cabin. He reached out and rapped the door quickly with his knuckles. The door opened almost immediately, and he found himself standing face-to-face with none other than Katie.

"Hey Travis," she greeted her boyfriend with a quick peck on the cheek. Travis grinned down at her, and produced the roses from behind his back.

"For you," he grinned as she reached for them with a smile on her face. The plan was simple, but hopefully effective. "Look, I know it's kind of late, but I was wondering if you wanted to go with the dance with me?" Katie looked kind of confused for a moment, and that worried the eldest Stoll.

"Well duh," she replied about two seconds later, her face brightening into a grin that sent a wave of happiness through Travis, although he'd never admit it. He grinned back at her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. His ego was inflating as the seconds went by and he couldn't help but feel pretty pleased that his plan was faultless.

Well, it was until Katie spoke again.

"We're going out Trav. Of course we'd be going to the dance together. You didn't even need to ask," With that, she skipped away, leaving a slightly embarrassed Travis Stoll behind her.

And that was how he found himself, nervous as heck as he stared in front of the small mirror on one of the walls of the Hermes cabin. He fiddled with his green tie once more, something he did when he was extremely anxious. Connor glanced at his obviously flustered brother and did his best to suppress laughter, although it was hard.

He had never seen his brother look so panicked in his life. Connor knew that his older brother had quite the reputation of being the resident player of Camp Half Blood and Travis was usually pretty smooth with all the ladies. Not many things flustered the young son of Hermes, especially when it came to the female population. Yet, Katie was totally different story.

"Are you ready to go?" Connor asked, looking at his Travis once more and failing to stifle a chuckle. Travis stopped fiddling with his tie to glare at his younger brother, annoyed that Connor was having such a blast with it was evident he was pretty much freaking out.

The Stoll brothers arrived at the Amphitheater with about five minutes to spare. Connor was the first to see his date; a beautiful daughter of Hecate named Chelsea. She had raven colored hair that reached her shoulders, dark eyes the color of melted chocolate and pale skin, looking grand in a long light pink evening gown, the hem swaying against the ground. The younger Stoll nudged his brother and made his way to Chelsea, leaving Travis on his own.

Travis muttered a few curses in Ancient Greek while he glanced around the area, trying to look for Katie. When he finally spotted her, he was sure that all the breath inside of him left the moment he laid eyes on her. To say the least, she looked absolutely stunning.

Katie was wearing a simple sea green strapless dress with black flowers swirling around as a pattern. The dressed ended modestly at her knees, the material swishing along her tanned skin as she walked around. She was wearing flat flats and her hair was curled into a complicated up-do that could've only been done by a daughter of Aphrodite.

"Gardner," Travis breathed as his girlfriend came closer. As soon she saw him, she was quick to walk over to him and give the flustered boy a hug. After a second he returned the favor, wondering if she couldn't sense his discomfort or just decided to ignore it.

"Hey Trav, I've been looking for you," she murmured as she wrapped a slender arm around his waist. Travis wasn't quite sure why Katie was having such an effect on him, especially now. They had been going out together for quite some time anyway, and it wasn't like she didn't treat him like this any other day.

So why he could he feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck as his face started to go hot?

"Well you found me," He replied, followed by a weak laugh. Inwardly, Travis slapped himself. He probably looked and sounded like a fool. Correction, he **did** look and sound like a fool. They stood together in a few seconds of awkward silence when the upbeat song booming from the speakers was replaced by a slow song.

Travis couldn't help but face-palm himself as he heard coupled scuttling into the middle of the dance floor. Did the Gods hate him or something? He wondered as he watched Percy and Annabeth sway to the soft beat of the song.

He had never told anyone, and he would've denied it if anyone asked, but he had never properly slow danced with a girl before. Sure, he'd had plenty of girlfriends, but they hadn't lasted long enough for him to actually go to the dance with them. But now here he was, with the possible girl of his dreams standing right next to him. When she looked up at him, her emerald eyes wide and expectant, Travis bit back a groan.

"Er…uh…do you wanna dance?" He mumbled incoherently, his eyes averted to the ground. Travis could have sworn Katie had squealed with glee as she pulled him into the small mass of swaying bodies.

They reached the middle of the dance floor within a few moments and found themselves standing in front of each other gawkily, staring at each other, but not entirely** at** each other. Both of them hadn't had their first proper slow dance yet, so neither of them quite knew what to do.

Travis, being the type of guy he was, decided that he should make the first move before Katie got even more uncomfortable, or even worse. He grabbed her hand rather clumsily and put a hand on her waist. Katie let out a small laugh that made the elder Stoll feel stupid for even trying. As he began to pull away, the daughter of Demeter laced their hands together and placed her free hand on his shoulder.

The pair swayed to gentle beat, both finally in a contented silence. It was almost too quiet for Travis and he was starting to feel slightly uneasy. The elder Stoll hated silence and figured he should say something.

He glanced down at his girlfriend, whose head was rested on his shoulder and suddenly felt a whole wave of emotions crash over him. Travis didn't really understand how he had become so sensitive recently, but for some reason, he didn't have a major problem with him.

There were many things that he wanted to say then and there. Travis wanted to tell Katie that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid her eyes on, that he was falling in love with her. He wanted her to know that he loved the way she drove him crazy and the way her dark locks would fall into her hair as she bent down to garden. The elder Stoll simply wanted to declare his (hopefully) undying love for her, but no words could express how he was feeling.

The song ended and Katie lifted her head off Travis' shoulder, breaking the young man out of his trance. She looked up at him with her deep set eyes the color of jade and they seemed to tell him everything he wanted to hear. As his dark brown hooded eyes locked with hers, he knew that he didn't have to say a word. His eyes told her everything she needed to know.


End file.
